Such boxes, such as for example that described in Patent CH-658 736, are provided with security systems which prevent any possibility of access to the stacked notes by the personnel entrusted with extracting these boxes from the selectors of these automatic machines.
It is known, for example from application FR-79 09576 or from U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,081, to provide a piston which introduces into the box, through a slot, the documents presented in succession by the selector. This slot is generally in the shape of a rectangle, the length of which is slightly greater than the longest length envisaged for the documents accepted by the selector, and a width which is less than the smallest width envisaged for the documents accepted by the selector. In a known manner, the piston ends in a plunger entering the slot sufficiently deeply to introduce the document into the box, against a presser plate supporting the other documents, already stacked, and which plate is pushed towards the face of the box where the slot is situated by mechanical return means, such as for example a spring. The slot of this type of box is automatically obstructed by a flap as soon as the box is extracted from the selector.
An apparatus for emptying such boxes is described for example in the published application EP-0 182 760.
In modern selectors, the user can not only introduce different types of documents through the same aperture, but also present them in any one of the four possible orientations which are a priori possible for a nonsymmetrical rectangular sheet of paper. The only restriction is that the document should be introduced in the direction parallel to its largest dimension. This is guaranteed by the choice of the width of the aperture of the selector, less than the smallest length envisaged for the documents accepted by the selector. This feature makes it possible, among other things, to ensure that the document is completely introduced through the slot by the piston.
The apparatus described in application EP-0 182 760 does not permit the turning of notes which might be presented in a direction which did not allow them, for example, to be tested as to their authenticity.
The document U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,556 describes an apparatus for arranging the documents all in the same direction, that is to say, capable of turning the documents to a predetermined orientation with a view to their subsequent treatment, for example, in the case of bank notes, to put them into identically stacked bundles.
The apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,556 requires manual presentation of the documents into the feeder, which raises problems of security, linked to the risk of being abstracted by personnel, when these documents are bank notes. The document EP-0 182 760 makes no mention of theft-proof or closed boxes making it possible to prevent any attempt at theft by the personnel maintaining the boxes. The apparatus thus described therefore makes it necessary to work with persons who are completely trustworthy, or under permanent surveillance with a sophisticated access control system in the room where the apparatus is located. It does not permit simple processing of the box by unqualified persons in general purpose premises.